


Double Take

by lasairfhiona



Category: CSI: Miami, West Wing
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-21
Updated: 2012-01-21
Packaged: 2017-10-29 21:30:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/324353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lasairfhiona/pseuds/lasairfhiona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leo does a double take and it leads him to what he wants</p>
            </blockquote>





	Double Take

Leo walked into the hotel and sighed when he saw there was yet another convention going on. The lobby was filled with balloons and give-away tables. Although from the look of the signs and banners, Leo didn't know what kind of give-aways there would be for Forensic Scientists. He'd bypassed dinner and was not only tired but hungry as well. Weaving his way through the lobby he headed toward the hotel pub since the other restaurants were closed and he didn't feel like eating in the solitude of his suite no matter how tired he was. The din of the pub was what he wanted. Needed.

Noticing the tables and booths were all filled, Leo headed to a seat at the far side of the bar. It was one of those seats that was usually empty because it was isolated from the rest of the seats and because of its proximity to the kitchen. It was just what he wanted. He was still there but the seat allowed him the privacy he also wanted. Jake, the bartender, waved when he sat down and simply asked, 'The usual?' Leo nodded and thought about Jake's question. The usual? Those words used to have a different meaning. They used to mean Scotch on the rocks and leave the bottle. Now they meant sweet iced tea or tonic water with lime. For Jake, it was the tonic and lime, a steak still pink on the inside and a baked potato with the works.

While he waited for his meal, Leo sipped on the tonic water and watched the people in lively conversation gathered around the bar. When one group parted he saw her, or at least he thought it was her. Setting the glass down so he wouldn't spill it, Leo watched the woman with the long blonde hair hanging loose down her back, hoping to catch a glimpse of her face. As soon as soon as she turned and saw the profile of her face he knew it was *her*. Ainsley had returned. He sucked a harsh breath. Why hadn't she called him? Why hadn't she told him she was back?

They had been a month into an intimate relationship after months of dancing around their growing feelings for one another. Then three months ago she disappeared while he'd been at work leaving him to come back to her nearly empty apartment and a note to say she was sorry. He'd called every friend of hers he'd known and then called people he didn't know but that Ainsley would know but he hadn't been able to find her. In his desperation he even called her family in Raleigh and listened as they coldly told him they didn't know where she was either. But here she was now. Standing in the bar of his hotel amid a group of men that didn't look like the group of people she usually associated with, especially the one who looked like he hadn't seen a razor in a while.

Leo found himself on his feet and weaving his way through the swarm of people toward her. Standing a few feet behind her he questioned, "Ainsley?"

The woman turned and looked at him. "I'm sorry," she said tossing her hair back over her shoulder.

Seeing her face Leo could see the difference between this woman and Ainsley however slight it was. "I apologise… You… I thought you were someone else." He started to turn away when he heard her voice with its soft southern accent.

"You thought I was Ainsley Hayes didn't you?"

He stared at her. How could she know Ainsley's full name? He'd only said Ainsley. How could this look alike know that was who he'd thought she was? "How" he finally vocalized aloud.

"Cal?" The dark unshaven man asked, wrapping his arm around her body and tucking her into the curve of his body.

Turning slightly, she told him softly, "It's okay Tim." When she turned back to Leo, she introduced herself, "I'm Calleigh Duquesne. Ainsley Hayes is my cousin," she told Leo bluntly, answering his question at the same time.

"How?" Leo tried to ask but couldn't put what he wanted to ask into anything more than the one word. How could Ainsley and this woman look so much alike and only be cousins?

"Our mothers are twins," Calleigh explained, understanding what he was trying to ask.

Leo absorbed what she'd told him but in the long run all he needed to know was Ainsley's location. "Where is she?" he asked getting right to the point. He had a feeling that Calleigh Duquesne knew exactly who he was and where Ainsley was.

"Not much for small talk are you?" Calleigh commented sarcastically.

"No," Leo answered. "Not when I don't know where she is and I have the feeling you do."

"Why do you care where she is anyway? It's not like you really care about her. She was just your little secret, a beautiful young woman to make you feel good not so old."

Something in her voice had the men surrounding her close ranks around her. The one she called Tim was suddenly flanked by a taller dark Mediterranean looking guy and an older man with red hair and watchful eyes. Obviously this woman had friends who weren't about to let her get into something without backup.

"Why do I care? I care because I love her," Leo declared.

"Big deal. You love her. Would you actually have acknowledged to all your high and mighty White House friends that you were sleeping with her?" Calleigh accused never raising her voice but the accusatory tone was clear.

"Does the truth matter to you or are you just going to believe what you want to?"

"The truth always matters," Calleigh answered.

Leo nodded. "The day she packed and left, I told the President I was in love with Ainsley and was planning to ask her to marry me," Leo paused when he heard Calleigh gasp in surprise. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the black velvet box he'd carried with him every day for the last three months. Reaching past her, he set the box on the bar. "Give it to her the next time you see her," Leo told her, knowing Calleigh would be seeing Ainsley, if for no other reason than to tell her what he'd said. He had to get out of there before he did something stupid and ordered a double scotch. He couldn't stay and look at the woman who looked so much like Ainsley. It cut too deep.

He was halfway across the lobby when he heard her call his name.

"Leo."

Turning, he watched as Calleigh strode across the lobby to catch up to him. The way she moved with confidence reminded him even more of Ainsley.

"Do you really love her?" Calleigh asked when she caught up with him.

"You have to ask?" he replied pointing to the box clutched in her hand along with a bar napkin.

"You'd really marry her even though she's younger? A Republican? No regrets?" She wanted to be sure of his answer before she did something that would make her cousin mad at her.

Now he was angry. "Look, it is pointless to continue this conversation. I've told you how I feel about her. I told you I wanted to marry her. My feelings haven't changed in the last five minutes."

Calleigh held out the hand with the ring box and wadded up napkin. When he took it she told him, "Give it to her your self." Then turned and headed back to where Tim stood at the entrance to the pub.

Leo watched as she walked into Tim's arms. He almost felt like a voyeur as he watched them. He was jealous. He wanted what they had with Ainsley. Looking away and at the crumpled napkin, Leo pocketed the ring once again and unfolded the napkin. On it was a hastily scribbled, but still legible, address and nothing else. Ainsley was in South Beach, Miami.

)O( * )O( * )O(

A few days later Leo found himself walking along the beach. He'd arrived early that morning and spent the time wandering around the part of town where Ainsley was now living. He needed to collect his thoughts before seeing her. He knew she'd only give him once chance to talk to her and he needed to let her know how much she meant to him right off the bat. Before he left Washington he'd had a long talk with Jed and Abbey and a similar one with Mallory before taking an indefinite leave of absence. His job had been his life for so long that it felt strange and yet exhilarating at the same time to throw that mantle off. He, however, wouldn't want to be in Jed's shoes when he told Senior Staff this morning about his leave of absence.

With loafers instead of Italian leather shoes, jeans, a silk shirt and tie and a light weight sports coat instead of an Armani suit, Leo headed toward the residential end of the beach and away from the art deco apartment buildings. He stopped when he stood in front of the address Calleigh had given him. It was a quaint cottage with a white fence and a garden full of flowers.

His mouth dry, he headed across the street. The jingle of the chimes hanging on the inside of the gate gave his arrival away. He was barely inside the gate when he heard her voice.

"Hello?"

Turning toward the direction of her voice, Leo watched as she came around the corner of the cottage. A wide brimmed hat covered her face and her hair hung clasped at the nape of her neck. The floral sundress she wore was unlike anything he'd ever seen her in.

"Leo!" she gasped when she saw him standing on the front walk.

"Hello Ainsley," he said, his greeting neutral until he knew how he would be received.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, showing the spunk he'd loved about her from the moment he met her.

"That should be obvious. I'm here to see you."

"How did you find me?"

Another voice from the side of the house asked, "Ainsley, who's here?"

Leo smiled when he recognized Calleigh's voice. Now that he heard them together he could really pick out the differences in their accents. His smile turned to a full grin when she greeted him with a "What the hell took you so long?" instead of a hello.

He didn't bother to answer Ainsley's question, Calleigh's greeting would tell her exactly how he found her, leaving her only to wonder how he and Calleigh met. Leo did, however, answer Calleigh's question because how he answered it would also be something he wanted, no needed, Ainsley to know as well. "I had a lot to clear off my desk before taking my leave of absence."

Ainsley never gave her cousin a chance to respond to Leo. "A leave of absence? Leo, what did you do? And why did you do it?"

Calleigh's smile and nod was the last thing Leo saw before he focused on Ainsley. This was his chance to let her know how he felt about her and to find out why she'd left him in the first place. "I love you," he said simply as if that was all the reason he needed for doing what he'd done. He knew, though, she wouldn't accept that so he continued, "I love what I do. I love working for Jed. But I love you as well. I learned from the mistakes I made with Jenny and I have no intention of repeating them with you."

She didn't know how to respond. This was the last thing she expected him to do. To say. Ainsley turned and walked over to the bench under the large shade tree and sat down. When he joined her, she finally asked, "Why?" not knowing how to express or ask the hundreds of things running through her mind at that moment. She just knew she had to know something.

"Why what?" he asked in response. "Why did I come?" when he saw her nod, he answered, telling her what was in his heart and in his head. "Because I love you. Because I want to marry you so I can feel you curled up with me every night and wake up with you every morning. I want to argue politics with you. I want to sit on the sofa doing the crossword puzzle with your feet pressed under my butt to keep warm while you read. I want to finish growing old with you." He stopped there was so much more he could say. Wanted to say but he couldn't put it all into words.

Left speechless by his declarations, Ainsley did the only thing she could. She reached out and took his hand as a tear rolled down her cheek. She had no idea what to say, she just needed to touch him to feel his warmth and his hand was the safest thing to hold while she figured out what to say. How to feel. She never knew, never could have guessed he felt that way about her.

Reaching over, Leo wiped the tear away with his thumb. He wanted to pull her into his arms and never let her go ever again, but he knew he couldn't. Not now. Not yet.

"Aren't you afraid of what the President will say when you tell him about me?" she finally asked. The President's reaction was the one thing that terrified her the most and the one thing that had the ability to make or break anything she might have with Leo. Even more than Mallory's.

"No," Leo answered, squeezing her hand gently as he brought it up so he could kiss her fingers. "He already knows. He's known how I feel about you for the last three months."

"What?" Ainsley asked surprised. "How? When?" she tried to get a grasp on exactly what was going on.

He couldn't help but smile at her rapid fire, incomplete questions, this was the Ainsley he knew.

"I told him about you and my feelings for you what turned out to be the day you left and when I told him I was coming down here to try and get you back he wished me, us, luck."

"You did? He did?"

"Yes, I did. And yes, he did," Leo confirmed then pulled the box from his pocket and handed it to her much the same way he'd given it to Calleigh in Washington three days ago.

Opening the box, Ainsley gasped when she saw the platinum band set with aquamarines and diamonds embedded in it and the second one with a large oval aquamarine solitaire surrounded by square cut diamonds. "What is this?" she asked still looking at the matching set of rings.

"Your wedding rings. I was going to propose the day you left."

For the second time since he walked into the yard, she was speechless. If his coming to find her was the last thing she expected him to do then she was wrong. Very wrong. Never in her wildest dreams of what could happen between them would she have guessed he'd want to marry her. "Oh," she finally said quietly. All her justifications for leaving him had been blown to hell as she looked at the rings she held. Now all she had was a boat load of 'what ifs'. "What happens now?"

"That depends on you."

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. What happens now depends on what you want. I've come down here to find you. I've told you how much I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. I've even given you your engagement and wedding rings. What's next, Ainsley?" he asked borrowing one of Jed's pet phrases.

Knowing they had forgotten about her presence, Calleigh spoke up, from where she lounged in Tim's arms for the first time and interjected into the conversation, "Now might be a good time to tell him about the baby." Ainsley and Leo both looked over at her in surprise then did a double take when they saw Tim's presence. His unnoticed arrival was a testament to how wrapped up in each other they were. She saw Leo mouth the word 'baby' as if to see if he heard her correctly, her nod confirmed to him he had. She also couldn't help but notice the glare Ainsley directed at her.

"How could you? You promised," Ainsley accused.

Leo didn't interrupt the cousins even though he was dying to know about the baby. There was a large part of him that wanted to know why Calleigh had given him the information on how to find Ainsley although he'd had an idea that it had a lot to do with the man whose arms she had wrapped around her. Now he had to wonder. Was that the only reason or was the fact that Ainsley was pregnant also playing into Calleigh's telling him where she was?

"Simple. I told Leo where you were because when I met him I could see how much he loved you. Loves you. It's written all over his face when he talks about you. When I talked to him, I learned that you were wrong about him and you needed to know that for the both of you and for the baby. And I mentioned the baby, because he's a good man and he has a right to know what he's fighting for," Calleigh paused a moment then offered her cousin some sage advice. "He's made his move Ains, now it's your turn, just make sure you make the right one." Calleigh stood and pulled Tim up with her. They started to head toward the gate and Calleigh stopped, turning back to Leo and Ainsley. "I know what it's like to go through life so focused on your job that you accept you'll never find the one person who will understand and accept you for who you are and what you do. I also know what it's like to almost lose him because I was too afraid to admit I'd found him," she paused and looked up at Tim, kissing the hand she held before finishing, "Don't make the same mistake, either of you. Trust me when I say it's worth the risk."

Leo watched as Calleigh and Tim walked through the gate with its tingling chimes before turning back to Ainsley. "A baby?" he asked, wanting, needing, to hear *her* say she was carrying his child. He'd never dreamed this would be part of their future. He rested both hands on her hips and felt the start of the gentle swelling of her stomach that hadn't been there before. She really was pregnant. "How long?"

"Four months," she answered quietly.

Leo thought for a moment then asked, "The first night?"

Ainsley nodded and laughed softly. "Yeah. The first night." Their baby was conceived the first time they made love. When they had spent the night discovering each other, overjoyed at finally being able to express what they had kept hidden for so long. The one and only night neither of them had thought about birth control. "What now?" she asked again this time the question held so much more meaning than before but she needed to know how he felt about this.

Still holding on to her, Leo traced the outline of where the baby lay nestled inside her. Finally looking up at her with awe, he cupped her face in his hands and used his fingers to trace her cheek. "This," he said reaching down with one hand to rest it on her abdomen, "only makes me love you more."

"Would you want to go back to Washington?" she asked changing the subject slightly.

He knew she was asking more about the job then she was where he really wanted to live. If leaving politics meant he'd have her and their baby in his life for more than weekend visits then he'd do it and do it without regret. "Only if you want to and only if we can get married."

She was once again floored by his answer. He was willing to give it all up for her. The job that had cost him his first wife. The job he coveted and lived for. The fact he was willing to sacrifice it all for her told her everything all his declarations couldn't. She kissed the palm of his hand and told him, "We better get you back to Washington."

"Ainsley," he tried to interrupt. He had to convince her that he wanted to be with her and the baby but she shook her head keeping him from continuing.

"You know Josh will have your desk turned upside down and Margaret will be threatening to kill him if you don't get back."

"Ainsley…"

This time she pressed his fingers again his lips to stop the flow of words and keep him from interrupting her. For such a smart man he was being incredibly dense, maybe what she was about to tell him would sink in. "And the President will never forgive you if you don't let him be your best man."

When her words finally sank in he did what he'd been wanting to do since he saw her walk around the side of the house. He pulled her into his arms and held her tight against him.

"Hey," she said patting him on the back to get him to release her. When he loosened his hold on her he looked almost afraid she was going to disappear on him again. Kissing him gently she told him, "You have to put this on me and we have to get me packed."

Taking the ring from her hand, Leo slipped it on her finger telling her, "I love you," as he did.

"I love you," she echoed, kissing him softly, enjoying the fact that she once again was in his arms.

"I meant what I said," he told her between tender kisses.

"I know."

"You really want to go back?" he had to know this was what *she* wanted and that she wasn't just doing this for him.

She held up her left hand with the ring sparkling in the sunlight. "Yes. I want to go back to Washington. I want you marry you in a small ceremony with our friends and immediate family. I want the President to stand up with you and I want Calleigh to stand up with me. I want to buy a little house where we can raise our baby. Calleigh was right. I was afraid to see what I had and I almost lost you because of it. I don't want to make that same mistake twice. Nor do I want you to give up the job you love before you have to." She scooted closer until she was completely in his arms with her head resting on his shoulder and her finger slipping through the button holes of his shirt to twist in his chest hair.

"Maybe packing can wait?" he asked not wanting to let this moment go.

"Packing can definitely wait," she said as she turned more in his embrace and deepened their kiss.

)O( * )O( * )O(

Ten days later Leo and Ainsley were married in the White House garden. The press had been kept out and the only attendees besides the Bartlets were the Senior Staff and the assistants, Leo's family, Tim Speedle, Ainsley's immediate family and Calleigh. For the second time in his life Jed Bartlet was Leo's Best Man as Calleigh stood next to Ainsley causing everyone to do a double take.


End file.
